Symbiodiniaceae algal symbionts of Pocillopora damicornis larvae provide more carbon to their coral host under elevated levels of acidification and temperature
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Sheng, Huaxia
Rädecker, Nils
Lan, Yi
Tong, Haoya
Huang, Lintao
Jiang, Lei
Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo
Zou, Bobo
Zhang, Yuyang
Kao, Shuh-Ji
Qian, Pei-Yuan
Huang, Hui
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Abstract
Climate change destabilizes the symbiosis between corals and Symbiodiniaceae. The effects of ocean acidification and warming on critical aspects of coral survical such as symbiotic interactions (i.e., carbon and nitrogen assimilation and exchange) during the planula larval stage remain understudied. By combining physiological and stable isotope techniques, here we show that photosynthesis and carbon and nitrogen assimilation (H13CO3- and 15NH4+) in Pocillopora damicornis coral larvae is enhanced under acidification (1000 µatm) and elevated temperature (32 °C). Larvae maintain high survival and settlement rates under these treatment conditions with no observed decline in symbiont densities or signs of bleaching. Acidification and elevated temperature both enhance the net and gross photosynthesis of Symbiodiniaceae. This enhances light respiration and elevates C:N ratios within the holobiont. The increased carbon availability is primarily reflected in the 13C enrichment of the host, indicating a greater contribution of the algal symbionts to the host metabolism. We propose that this enhanced mutualistic symbiotic nutrient cycling may bolster coral larvae's resistance to future ocean conditions. This research broadens our understanding of the early life stages of corals by emphasizing the significance of symbiotic interactions beyond those of adult corals.
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Communications Biology
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7
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© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
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Biological oceanography
Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
Climate change impacts and adaptation
Biological sciences
Biomedical and clinical sciences
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Sun, Y; Sheng, H; Rädecker, N; Lan, Y; Tong, H; Huang, L; Jiang, L; Diaz-Pulido, G; Zou, B; Zhang, Y; Kao, S-J; Qian, P-Y; Huang, H, Symbiodiniaceae algal symbionts of Pocillopora damicornis larvae provide more carbon to their coral host under elevated levels of acidification and temperature, Communications Biology, 2024, 7, pp. 1528